The mission of The Oliver LaGrone Scholarship Committee is to generate, broaden, and nurture post-secondary aspirations of Harrisburg School District students by: providing personal support and advocacy; providing financial assistance for post-secondary education; involving Unitarian Church of Harrisburg members in action toward this purpose; and maintaining the legacy of Oliver LaGrone as the inspiration for the Scholarship.

The LaGrone Scholars

The Oliver LaGrone Scholarship program offers the largest local scholarship available to graduates of Harrisburg High School. Scholars receive $7,500 ($1,875 annually).

The Scholarship is not just for college, but also for any form of accredited post-secondary education.

The Scholarship may be used to support anything essential to the Scholar’s studies, not just tuition or books.

The Fund and its activities are initiated and managed by the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg.

Scholars are supported over four years by a personal relationship with a church member mentor, often from the Scholar’s field of interest.

Scholar applicants are solicited from the Harrisburg School District.

Scholar selection is by a panel that includes community as well as church members.

Making A Contribution

You may make a contribution at any time to honor an individual, an event, or simply to support the Scholarship Fund directly. Checks should be made payable to the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg; write OLSF on the memo line. Contributions by mail can include OLSF in the church address.

Inspiration for Scholarship: Oliver LaGrone

Oliver LaGrone was a noted poet, sculptor, educator, and humanitarian. He was personally a man of towering intellect and prodigious creativity. It is no wonder that this elegant man with a knowing spirit inspired the creation of a scholarship.

Childhood in Wild West

The adults in Oliver’s world shaped him mightily. He was born in the Oklahoma Territory, his father having left Alabama after an incident involving two white men who were beating his paternal grandmother. His father had a Normal school education, knew black history and heroes, was financially successful, and was influential in his black community. Mother LaGrone knew that hers was a child of the rough, untamed frontier but nurtured his sense of social justice and his desire to express it personally and artistically. Already at age four he fashioned a bust of Frederick Douglass, of Oklahoma red clay. His older brother Hobart attended Fisk University and knew W.E. Dubois. The noted humanitarian became a frequent visitor in the LaGrone home during Oliver’s youth.

College Influences

Although his early efforts to earn a college degree at Howard University were interrupted when his father died, while there LaGrone became personally acquainted with Ralph Bunche, later a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and with Dr. Carter G. Woodson, father of American black history.

Then, while working for the chief engineer on the Boulder Dam, the engineer’s wife took LaGrone to the president of the University of New Mexico, ensuring LaGrone’s enrollment. One of Oliver’s art professors was a friend of the journalist Ernie Pyle, bringing mention of LaGrone’s talent in one of Pyle’s columns. Oliver LaGrone persevered and graduated from the University of New Mexico with degrees in sociology and fine arts.

Early Activism

Oliver LaGrone worked for Ford in the war effort. He was identified as a person of unusual sensibilities and ended up traveling the U.S. on behalf of the president of the United Auto Workers.

Artist

He was the first African American to attend Cranbrook Art Academy in Detroit where he studied sculpture as Carl Milles’ protégé. He was part of Detroit’s “swinging young set.” His friendship with Paul Robeson later brought LaGrone job loss and threat of personal physical danger.

LaGrone traveled in Africa, including studying the bronzes of Benin. Upon his return he met Alex Haley, long before Haley’s notoriety for authoring Roots.

Educator

LaGrone continued to write poetry and create sculptures throughout his life. For many years, he was a teacher in the Detroit Schools. In 1970, he was invited to lecture in art and African-American history at The Pennsylvania State University. In 1975, he became Artist-in-Residence, working at all 21 branches of Penn State; and then held a similar position with the Hershey Foundation and Boas Center for Learning in the Harrisburg School District.

Poet

LaGrone’s poems, articles and reviews appeared in such publications as The Saturday Review, Negro Digest, and the New York Times Sunday Book Review. His poetry has been included in several anthologies. For many years, he presented the LaGrone Art Culture package, consisting of 18-20 sculptures, poetry and lectures in African-American history in schools, universities and service organizations in more than 24 states. Comedian Dick Gregory arranged the first contact with the speaker’s management bureau he used.

Sculptor

His sculptures can be seen locally at the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg and at Penn State Harrisburg in the LaGrone Cultural Arts Center and the Rowland Sculpture Garden.

LaGrone Scholarship

While a member of the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg, Oliver LaGrone inspired members of the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg to establish a scholarship in his name. Funds to establish and build the scholarship came from many fundraisers and the donations of many individuals and organizations over the years. Oliver donated the proceeds from the sale of his sculpture, “The Dancer.” In more recent times, the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg Endowment Fund, which is supported by the L. James Eckels Trust, has made substantial contributions toward the scholarship.

LaGrone the Universal Man

Oliver LaGrone died at age 89 in October 1995. Throughout his near-epic life he focused on universals. A black race/white race divide was impossible for him. So too he found no disjuncture between poetry and sculpture, between young and old, or between the new and the familiar. He was drawn to the unity and interdependence of all things. The Oliver LaGrone Scholarship is fitting testament.

LaGrone Poetry
Lines to the LaGrone Scholar

(Original verse by Oliver LaGrone, 1992)

The human race has broken
Those limits that once found
Their efforts to serve a token
Hemmed in by sight, by touch and sound...

The moon, once a distant spectre
Provoked its mystique and our awe;
For youth, a wan mirror; or a reflector,
That roamed the night-sky's gaping maw..

But at last some curious searching minds
Made journeys on their earthbound charts
That calculated that "time that binds"
With space, to reach more distant parts...

So, you the space-age generations
Who saw the moon men's walk
You can project with new transformations
Where pioneers with distant secrets talk

Your vision each day you may expand
By bending your energies with your will.
The vista is endless and more grand
As you resolve, your high hopes to fulfill.

While looking out we may look within,
To husband all our dormant labors;
That here and now we commit to win,
And make the human race our neighbors.

The need for experts in your field,
Is one that ever is steady mounting.
We hope your endeavors will "bring to yield,"
And, of life, a most worthy broadcasting.

Thanks all my dear and special friends.
The best to you, (name of scholar inserted), with these honors
I too am honored that my name attends,
The testimony of these generous donors . . .

We salute you in the spirit, UU's "sentient heart"
Where search for truth and light abide
Where humanity is evident in rendezvous with art,
And life's wayfarers watch each changing tide. . .

Ballet to Disco
1979, UCH sanctuary, Gift of Lowery and Marilyn McHenry, 1999 (base constructed and gifted by John Quimby) "So on a clean sheet of paper and with a ball point pen I found my hand operating as a stylus recording the 'minimum essentials' in a symbolic replay of the visual experiences which had made such an indelible dynamic impress on my psyche." Oliver LaGrone, 1999

You must complete the enclosed scholarship application form. You must attach two other items:

Copies of your transcripts from at least the past two semesters,

A brief portrayal of YOU! This can be in written form, or you can get creative, as described on the application.

Assistance is available to complete this form or other financial assistance applications. Just call the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg at (717) 564-4761. If you need additional space to answer any question in this application, feel free to add a separate sheet.

The Selection Committee will include members of the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg and representatives of the local community. Interviews will be scheduled after submitted applications have been reviewed.

The scholarship may be used for any legitimate costs connected with schooling, such as tuition, room, board, books, transportation, and child care. With satisfactory academic performance and required documentation, $1,750 will be available to you each year for four years

Mentor Program

Members of the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg can help you in a variety of ways, if needed. For instance, if transportation to and from school is a problem, assistance can be arranged. Maybe you’re having a problem connecting with a child care provider. Maybe you want tutoring help with a tough math class. Maybe you would appreciate assistance in dealing with the student loan office at your school. Maybe...

You get the idea. Help will be matched to your particular needs if you would like a hand dealing with a problem that will affect your doing your best in school. In other words, the UCH has a pool of people who can assist scholarship recipients in a variety of ways. They are called “mentors.” Your mentor will arrange the match between your need and the available assistance in any reasonable way possible.

And if you don’t need or want any help, that’s OK too.

Application Form

The Application Form and flyer is located here and is in a zipped folder containing two Adobe Acrobat fillable forms*. If you are unable to open this file, pleaseemail the church office or call 564-4761 and an application will be mailed to you. Applications also should be available at Harrisburg High School Counseling Office. Assistance is available to complete this form or other financial assistance applications. *You will need Adobe Reader to use this form.

LaGrone Scholarship Funds

The Oliver LaGrone Scholarship Fund is administered by the Investment Committee of the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg. The OLS Fund is a restricted fund, used only to provide financial assistance for post-secondary education aspirations of Harrisburg School District students. *Balance of OLS account as of June 30, 2008: $80,995.86 (balance is now over $200,000.00)

The Oliver Collective

The OLIVER COLLECTIVE is a group of artists whose works are offered in return for contributions to the Oliver LaGrone Scholarship Fund. All proceeds go solely to LaGrone Scholarships--artists contribute their creations and establish a minimum contribution level for each item. A showing of such premiums is held in the fall and in the spring for two successive Sundays following Sunday services. Begun in 2009, The OLIVER COLLECTIVE in its first five showings raised a total of over $8300.